


A Breath Of Fresh Air

by JustAHumanMachine



Category: Original Work
Genre: Attempted Murder, Blood, Gen, General Chaos, Happy Ending, Implied/Referenced Suicide, Religious Content, Road Trips, Some angst, Someone gets shot and almost dies, Superheroes, There’s not a lot happening but they’re still chaos children, This is literally the longest one shot i’ve written wow, Veronica is a maniac, Wow long, i spent too long on this, slice of life i guess?
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2020-08-09
Updated: 2020-08-09
Packaged: 2021-03-06 01:33:50
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: Graphic Depictions Of Violence
Chapters: 1
Words: 5,607
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/25795195
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/JustAHumanMachine/pseuds/JustAHumanMachine
Summary: Iris decides to take her fellow superheroes on a road trip to blow off steam after weeks of fighting and stress, you know, give them a breath of fresh air. Which would be a lot easier if they weren’t all human disasters.





	A Breath Of Fresh Air

(Quick warning: there’s a somewhat gorey and bloody scene, attempted murder, and brief mentions of suicide. This was supposed to be happy and I accidentally made it angsty and super long like I always do. Stay safe.)

Iris wasn’t sure why she thought this trip was a good idea. She’d proposed it to the others, as a reprieve from the constant stress of superheroics and a getaway from everyday life. Given their current situation, the criminals running the city, the monsters rising from the sewers, and the plain old murder, this was the first time Iris felt like they could leave and not have the city burned down when they got back.

The first sign things were going south was the night she told the others. The guys had all been on board, even excited, although that fear that they would be needed was still hanging in the air.

“Are you sure the city will be safe?” Sora had asked, with a lightness and relief in his voice that said he really hoped it would be.

“Well, half of the main criminals have been apprehended, and our strange new allies can easily hold off the rest.” Jace shrugged, the slightest smile creeping to his lips. “I think everything should be fine.”

Titus laughed. “That’s a relief. With everything going on, I’d kill for a normal week.”

“Sounds good to me,” Nina said. “I’ll tell Veronica.”

Silence. After a tense moment, Sora cleared his throat. “You know, I was thinking maybe it would just be the five of us-“

“No one likes Veronica,” Titus said. “This is as much about getting away from her as the rest of the city.”

“I don’t understand why you guys hate her so much,” Jace muttered. “But I’d rather not have everyone fighting this whole time.”

“Besides, someone needs to be here in case things get out of hand while we’re gone,” Iris added.

“Oh, sure, leave the one person without any superpowers, a tendency to get in over her head, and an almost suicidal disregard for her own safety to protect the city.” Nina’s voice was cold. “She’d be dead before we got back.”

Iris stumbled over her response, and the slightest smirk grew on Nina’s face. She had won and she knew it.

So that was how they ended up packed in the car together, Iris in the driver’s seat regretting her life choices, Titus beside her loudly singing along to the music, Nina playing some game, Veronica ecstatically pointing out various things around them, and Sora and Jace squished together in the back. As the sounds around them turned into white noise, Iris wondered when she had turned into the mother of five grown adults. At least three of them were quiet.

It was a few hours before they reached the next city. Veronica sprung out of the car with childlike glee, excitedly rambling about how great it felt to be out with her friends. Something about that clicked in her mind - Iris couldn’t recall Veronica ever mentioning her friends, at least not until she’d stumbled into Nina’s life. The strange scientist seemed like an island, adrift from the world, who didn’t see or didn’t care about the gentle rules the world had set around her. She was dangerous, Iris supposed, but not malevolent, even if the rest of the group treated her like an enemy.

Of course, she had taken her eyes off the crew for five seconds, and now a trash can was on fire. Thank goodness the city needed them, otherwise there was little reason they not to put them in jail.

They had managed to quench the fire before anyone noticed, although the spiked icicles now frozen to the trash can would also have drawn attention. Sora’s powers weren’t the flashiest, but every now and then they left marks. What was odd was how nervous he felt about using them. Iris had asked him time and time again, but he’d never actually answered the question.

This train of thought was cut off by Iris’ awkward realization that she had no clue what people did on road trips. Luckily Titus had drug the group to a sandwich shop, and as they were eating, Iris cleared her throat.

“So, does anyone have any plans?”

“Iris, do I look like I’ve ever had a plan in my life?” Veronica replied with a chuckle.

“I thought you were planning things,” Nina said.

“Give me a break, I’ve never done something like this before.” Iris looked around the group, only to be greeted by silence.

Finally, Jace said “I hate sandwiches.”

“Really?” Titus replied through a mouthful of food. “I didn’t know that.”

“Titus, we have known each other for how many years and you haven’t picked up on that? I’m eating soup and it’s a billion degrees outside.”

“Well, I mean, you hate everything.”

“I don’t hate everything, that’s a massive exaggeration.”

“Fine, you hate everything but Sora.”

Jace turned a very distinct shade of red and muttered to himself as he went back to eating.

“If you don’t mind me cutting in,” Sora said, “There’s a park a few miles out from here. Maybe we could head there at some point?”

With no other suggestions or plans around the table, they were about to head on their way when Titus bumped into a young woman heading in the opposite direction.

“Oh, sorry, miss,” he said, helping her pick up the books she’d dropped.

“It’s fine, sir, I was just-“ The woman looked at Titus and instant recognition filled her face. “Wait.” She quickly looked around the rest of the group. “Oh my goodness,” she said, glee spreading across her face, “you’re those superheroes, aren’t you?”

Titus stuttered, taken off guard. That was enough conformation for her. “I can’t believe it,” she said, “I can’t believe I’ve found actual superheroes, this is amazing! You guys are-“

Before she could say anymore, Veronica snuck up behind her and held a small rag over her mouth until she passed out.

It took a moment for this to register with the others. “Veronica?” Iris said in a deceptively calm tone, cracks of rage just slipping through the facade. “What on earth was that?”

“I panicked,” Veronica replied with a nervous grin.

“You panic and your first response was to chloroform a random woman?”

“She knew too much!”

“Why do you even have chloroform with you?”

“It’s not chloroform. Chloroform doesn’t knock someone out that quickly-“

“I don’t care what it is, why do you have it?”

“In cause of emergencies.” Veronica gestured to the unconscious woman. “Like that.”

A few minutes later they left as quickly as possible, leaving the woman who Veronica swore would wake up soon propped up on a bench, and with Veronica tied up in the trunk. Jace, who seemed to recognize Iris’ frazzled mental state, had insisted on driving the next leg of the trip, and Sora had taken Titus’ place in the front seat, along with his place as the one singing along to every song he recognized. A few times, it was painfully clear that he didn’t know the words, but Sora continued singing, making up new lyrics on the spot. A few times this made Jace chuckle and join in. For such a bitter man, he had a surprisingly sweet voice.

Iris realized, as she sat next to Nina, struggling to complete a Rubik’s cube, that a few months ago, she couldn’t have imagined Jace singing. In fact, a slow but monumental change had come over the man, a gradual shift into the sunlight as he tried to carve himself into something... better. It seemed rude to say, but the old Jace was not a good person. He was a superhero, yes, but he was rude and unpleasant and didn’t think of anyone but himself, digging himself into a pit of self-pity and hatred. Looking back, it seemed like the only thing keeping him around was Sora - the two of them were close friends before all this - but even then, Sora’s constant optimism and trust in his friend seemed to waver as Jace did nothing but wear down the people around him.

And suddenly, that had changed. It wasn’t a drastic turnaround that made him a paragon - he was still bitter and struggled to act selflessly - but now he was trying. Iris had found it shocking, but Sora was so excited and relived, she never thought about it any deeper. But she suspected there was a catalyst, something that took a man iron set in his ways and shoved him onto a better path.

The Rubik’s cube was getting nowhere. Iris sighed and flung it over her shoulder, where it sailed over Titus sleeping in the backseat and into the trunk. She heard Veronica give a shout of pain, but thought nothing else of it.

A few moments later there was a sharp pain in the back of her head as Veronica flung it as hard as she could from the trunk. “Hey!” Iris yelled.

“Well, you shouldn’t have thrown it at me!” Veronica replied with a childish pout.

“I didn’t hit you on purpose!” Iris shouted back.

“Be quiet...” Titus muttered, still half asleep.

“Do you need your beauty sleep?” Nina asked, half mocking.

“Yeah. A healthy sleep schedule is important. That’s why I’m so amazing and you’re a dumpster fire of a person.”

With that, he went back to sleep. “Huh, she solved that quickly.” Nina was tossing the now solved cube between her hands.

“Veronica, did you untie yourself?” Iris asked in a sudden realization.

In response Veronica held up the ropes, now tied into elaborate knots and not around her. “I’ve been untied for a while. What, was I supposed to tell you?”

“Yes.”

“But then you’d just tie me up again.”

“That’s the point, Veronica.”

“You guys are going to let me out when we get to the park, right?”

Iris thought for a moment before replying “If you promise not to do anything stupid and if you tie yourself back up for now.”

“Sure thing, buddy!”

There were a few moments of silence. “Iris, I think I made the ropes too tight.”

“Iris?”

“I know you can hear me, Iris.”

Aware of the twisted sense of pleasure bubbling inside her at the maniac getting some sense of comeuppance, Iris picked up the Rubik’s cube. Nina was right, she had solved that incredibly quickly. Every now and then, the scientist gave them small, unintentional reminders that despite all the stupid things she did and her general chaotic insanity, she had a very sharp mind. In Iris’ eyes, that made her even more dangerous.

The park had been a bit further out than they expected, and the sun was just beginning to set, painting tints of orange across the light blue sky. There was still light left in the day, and the group began to trek into the woods. Nina had been the one who untied Veronica, and she bounced into the woods, as if she hadn’t been tied up in the trunk of a car for hours, commenting on even the most basic and boring things, calling everything around her beautiful until it didn’t sound like a word anymore.

About an hour into their trek, when the light had turned into a gentle shade of orange, they emerged at a small cliff, watching the sun set over an ocean of trees. It was a beautiful sight. It was also the first time on the entire trek that Veronica was silent. In that moment, there was a sense of majesty to the world that flooded them, and she seemed intent on drowning in its beauty.

They remained there until the light was nearly gone before remembering all at once that they needed to get back to the car. Luckily, there was a much shorter route, albeit a bit more treacherous, so they started on that. A few minutes in, they ran across a strip of stone path. Out of curiosity, Sora started down that trail, his light steps carrying him ahead of the rest of the group. Iris hung in the back, helping Nina navigate the more shaky sections of the trail.

“You’re a bit close to the edge,” Jace said as Veronica balanced on a line of rocks just above a steep drop. Veronica shrugged. No witty comment, no childish response, she just shrugged.

And then just a few steps later, the rock she was standing on slipped from under her feet.

Before Iris had even processed what she saw Jace lunged and grabbed Veronica’s arm. Jace wasn’t the strongest guy, and he began to slide toward the edge - by now the group had regained their sense and helped the two of them to solid ground.

“Are you two okay?” Sora asked, panicked.

“I’m fine,” Jace replied coldly. “You need to watch out for yourself,” he said to Veronica with a poke in the chest. “I say you’re close to the edge, and a few seconds later you nearly fall to your death.”

“Oh, that wouldn’t have killed me,” Veronica chuckled, struggling to maintain her normal careless enthusiasm. “I’m pretty much indestructible.”

As the group headed on, much more aware of their footing, Iris fell back into her thoughts. She was surprised at the genuine care Jace had for Veronica, how he was the first to act in that moment... the man really had changed.

“It’s because she saved him.”

Iris gave Nina an odd look. “What?”

“Well, it seems like you’re confused about Jace, especially given how much you guys hate Veronica. She saved him, so he’ll save her.”

“I... don’t understand. And I don’t hate her-“

“I’m not fond of liars, Iris.” Nina gave her a cold glare. “And I know you’re not stupid, so I’m surprised you haven’t put it together. Do you remember exactly when the shift in Jace’s demeanor took place?”

“A few months ago,” Iris said, thinking and trying to ignore Nina’s hostility. “Wait, it was right after he went to the hospital.”

“Exactly. And I know Veronica was there when you went to see him. You may have saved his life, Iris, but Veronica saved him.”

With that, Nina sped up her steps just enough to leave Iris alone. Iris hadn’t thought much about that night, particularly because she didn’t want to. They might have been superheroes, but that night reminded her that they were still human.

It had been around midnight and Iris was struggling to fall asleep. She supposed someone else had the same problem, as she heard footsteps and clattering from outside her room. Then she heard Jace’s voice, and someone else’s, and remembered how one sounded angry and the other frantic. She had been too sleepy to pay much thought to that.

What had shocked her awake were the gunshots and the horrible, animal scream of pain.

It took Iris about ten seconds to deal with the robber, but now there was a much bigger problem - she could still remember how Jace had stumbled backwards, the look of shock on his face, how he had weakly gripped at the three holes in his shirt, hands dripping with his own blood. Part of Iris thought bullet wounds would be cleaner, but there were fragments of her friend splattered on the wall, and Iris ended up puking into the trash can. It made her sick, sick with fear.

Jace had crashed backwards, barely holding himself up on the wall, and Iris, who’d knocked the robber unconscious, rushed over and realized he was going into shock, he was coughing up blood, the blood was soaking though his shirt and over Iris’ fingers, one of the bullets had gone through him and left a hole she could see through - oh, she was going to be sick again. Dear God, she remembered thinking, he’s going to die. He was going to die and she didn’t have a clue what to do. It wasn’t until Titus, always a heavy sleeper, ran out and saw what was going on that she managed to make herself call and ambulance, she was fumbling over her words as the operator continued in a calm voice, she didn’t want him to die-

The paramedics had taken him away as he was slipping in and out of consciousness. They had recommended the two of them stay at home while they took care of Jace, who they said was in critical condition. The walls were still splattered with human blood. They left on a midnight walk.

A good five minutes passed in complete silence before Titus said, “I should call Sora.”

Iris nodded. Sora was out of the country, and Iris was glad for that. She didn’t want to think of how he would have responded to that - he was always squeamish, and he was much closer to Jace than the rest of them. Veronica had been working late that night, and late for her meant she fell asleep at her desk at three in the morning. So she’d contacted her as they made their way around town. Besides, Veronica was the only one who wouldn’t flinch at washing someone’s blood from the walls.

She had visited Jace three times. The first time, it was just her and Titus, the day after the whole incident. It had been hours before the doctor had let them in. The nurse said he’d finally stabilized, but he was so still when they walked in Iris almost thought he was dead. But Jace was both alive and awake, lying in bed, looking out the window with a hollow expression on his face.

“Hey, Jace.” Titus said. “You okay?”

Silence.

“Jace?”

“Say something, buddy.”

“Dude, talk to us.”

“Jason.”

Jace didn’t respond, even to being called by his real name, which would normally have made him snap in rage. Titus stood up, enraged. “You know what, fine. You want to give us the cold shoulder? I don’t care. I don’t care if you want to sit there brooding over who knows what. I came here to see if you were okay, and this is what you do? You sit there like the bitter prick you are.”

No response. “You should be dead, you know. The doctors said it’s a miracle you survived. And I don’t know what kind of God would waste a miracle on you.”

Iris should have said something. She knew Titus was half mad with worry, and she should have stopped him from talking, should have stopped him from spilling the built up grievances he’d had for seven years. But she didn’t.

“Say something, you bastard. Go on, say one word. Anything. Oh, what do I care, it’s just going to be another bitter complaint. Say something, get mad at me! Come on, this isn’t the Jace I know! The Jace I know is an asshole!” Titus had past the point of loud, boiling anger and fell back into a deceptive calm. “Aren’t you going to say something? Go on, tell me one thing in you worth saving, because I sure can’t find anything!

“I know.”

Jace’s voice was so soft, so devoid of malice or spite, that it brought Titus crashing down to earth, regret spilling across his face. “Jace, I-“

“You’ve already told me what you think. You can’t go back on it now.” Jace rolled over to face the wall, an instinctive sound of pain escaping him, and curled up. “And it doesn’t seem like Iris has anything to say either, and Sora and Veronica aren’t even here.”

Titus sounded desperate and halfway to tears. “Jace, I didn’t mean it-“

“Just go.”

It was a quiet command, but without any of the power his voice usually had. Still, they had left, and all Iris could think about for weeks was how she had nearly killed him with her silence.

It was only a few hours later when they got another call from the hospital. They said it was an accident, that someone had messed up the dosage of Jace’s painkillers, and out of sheer desperation to not believe the truth, Iris had accepted that. He was in a coma for almost a week.

Sora was still stuck at his father’s place - a bad storm had kept planes from leaving - and he called every day, frantic, begging for any word on his friend’s condition. He was still out of town when Jace finally woke up, but he sounded ecstatic just to learn he was okay.

That was the second time they’d visited. Veronica had insisted on it. She didn’t know how their first visit had gone, or maybe she did, Iris could never tell. She believed this visit was when her light animosity with Veronica turned into deep, bitter hatred.

“So, painkiller overdose, eh?” was the first thing she said.

“It was an accident,” Iris cut in. “The hospital messed up the dosage and-“

“Bull.”

Iris could feel the way Jace tensed up. “What?”

“Do you guys honestly think a hospital would screw up a dosage so badly it would kill one of their patients? Or do you think-“

“Shut up,” Jace snarled.

“So why’d you do it? Did you realize you’re an a-hole and nobody likes you?”

“What the heck, Veronica?” Titus hissed.

“You can’t talk,” Jace whispered, and that was enough to shut Titus up.

“Look, Jason.” There was no mockery in her eyes. “I know you don’t like being a jerk and I know you don’t like being alone. So why do you keep being an awful person? Like, it actually makes me mad, you know why?”

“Veronica. Stop.” Iris said, glaring daggers at her.

“Because you’re the one person I’ve met who has the world figured out.” That surprised Jace, who finally looked her in the eyes. “You may be a bitter jerk, but you always do what’s right for someone else, you never leave your principles, you’re willing to sacrifice anything to protect what’s beautiful in the world. Yeah, you’re a dick. But you’re not a bad person, and it makes me so mad to see a good man trapped in a self-made cage of douchebaggery.”

Silence. “Look, let’s agree on something. Let’s say that the a-hole, he died a week ago when a robber turned you into Swiss cheese. I know you’re not happy as a jerk, so do something about it. I’m not saying anything huge, just do one good thing to start. Y’know, like be decent to Sora, the one person who loves you more than anything else-“

At this point, Veronica was thrown out, meaning Iris picked her up and threw her twenty feet down the hallway. The third visit was the next day, when Jace had recovered enough to go home. Sora had finally made it back home, and had practically drug Iris to the hospital the second he arrived. But they had a third companion - Nina had claimed she need a ride from Iris, something about an investigation at the hospital, but looking back Iris was almost sure it was just an excuse to come with them. That was odd, they were barely friends at that point.

The second they’d arrived, Nina began sniffing the air. At this point Iris was used to her odd, catlike senses, but at the time she was wondering if she should punch her. “Veronica’s been here.”

“You know what she smells like?”

“You all have very distinct scents, you just don’t realize it. Besides, she smells like burning paper, and that’s a very hard smell to ignore.”

“Burning paper? That seems... oddly appropriate. So she’s been here?”

“Yes, very recently.”

Before Iris could say anything, Sora had drug them to Jace’s room, and she was left stewing in worry.

“Hey,” Sora said, and Jace immediately sat up, then got to his feet and headed toward them. “Are you okay? I heard what happened-“

Then Jace did something Iris never expected - he pulled Sora into a bear hug, lifted the smaller man off the ground. “I’m so sorry,” he said, tears cracking through his voice.

“Sorry? Sorry for what?”

“I’ve just been horrible, and I’m so sorry for everything.”

Despite his confusion, Sora returned the hug. “Hey, it’s okay, buddy. Please put me down.”

Iris drove them home, then went to work and didn’t think about it for the rest of the day. Then she had gotten home and realized she could smell burning curry halfway down the hall. She rushed into the apartment, ready to grab the fire extinguisher they found was a necessity ever since Veronica moved in, and found Jace in the kitchen, struggling to cook some dish from a book Sora had brought from his home. That’s what they had for dinner that night. It tasted terrible. But Sora appreciated the thought, and oddly, Veronica, who normally spoke her mind on literally everything, didn’t say a word.

Iris still chuckled when she thought about how the smell of burning curry had baked itself into the small apartment. In fact, she could almost smell it now - no, she actually did smell something burning. And ahead of her, silhouetted in the pale moonlight, she could see the group messing with the car’s engine as smoke billowed out.

“Well, that sucks.” Jace crossed his arms and sighed. “We’re going to need a mechanic.”

“I am a mechanic,” Titus said with a grin.

“We’re going to need a better mechanic.”

Titus and Jace began arguing as Iris noticed something that sent a chill down her spine - there were only five of them at the car. “Guys, where’s Veronica?”

Silence. “Crap, she must have slipped away,” Nina said, the slightest hint of worry on her face. “And it’s the dead of night, how on earth are we going to find her?”

Iris sighed and turned on her flashlight. “I’ll find her. You guys work on the car, I’m sure she’s around here somewhere.”

So Iris retraced her steps, following the stone trail back into the woods. She didn’t want to admit it, but she was scared. Every bone in her body was screaming at her to run, to go back to the car and say sorry, it was dark and I couldn’t find her. And yet she persisted, even when her mind turned the shadows into monsters and she realized she was dreadfully alone.

Perhaps fear was what drove her toward that light shining just off the trail. Perhaps it was the assumption that Veronica would have nowhere to go, no reason to leave the trail except for that light. Perhaps she had a moth brain and instinct was kicking in. Regardless of the reason, Iris headed down the thankfully clear path in the woods toward the light barely a hundred feet from the trail.

She emerged from the heavy shade of the forest into a graveyard. Iris froze. She was never a superstitious person, but she didn’t want to walk on the graves of the dead. Carefully she wove between the tombstones. This would be a great place for Veronica to jump out and scare her to death. In fact, she almost wanted that to happen, because every step she took through this graveyard without a sign of Veronica set grimmer and grimmer thoughts into her mind. “That isn’t funny,” she wanted to say, but she could not force the words from her mouth. So she just focused on getting closer and closer to the great, lit windows of the building before her.

It wasn’t an old building, in fact, it looked like it was kept up well. It was a large church - the sign out front said it was Catholic - like the ones Iris went to many times in her youth. She still did, but that was more habit than anything. Part of her wondered if Veronica, who despite her scientific nature always felt the pull of the spiritual and supernatural, was drawn here, before deciding against it. Veronica didn’t strike Iris as a religious person, but she would likely come here because it was the only building around.

Iris gently pushed open the door, and it easily swung in, letting light spill out over her and into the night. Closing the door behind her - she still didn’t like that graveyard - Iris went through the great room, walking down the aisle between the pews, observing the large stained glass window with a wooden cross in its center. There was no sign of Veronica. “Veronica?” Iris said, only to hear the echo of her own voice.

Despite the lack of response and the urge to run because it felt like she’d walked into a horror movie, Iris kept searching. She found one door that wasn’t fully closed, and as she approached she heard a human voice from inside. Iris slowly opened the door and found a confessional booth. The voice was coming from the leftmost booth and was definitely Veronica’s, and even though she was speaking in a language Iris didn’t understand, it sounded like she was praying. Or trying to pray. She struggled over her words, her voice was shaky, and her speech was punctuated by sobs. Iris slowly approached, keeping her steps as quiet as she could, and Veronica’s speech became more and more frantic until finally, she broke down.

“Veronica?”

She jumped, her face stained with tears, curled up on the floor of the booth. “Iris?” Veronica said, bearing the same panic and embarrassment of someone who was interrupted while undressing. Iris felt like she shouldn’t look at her in this state of distress. “What are you doing here?”

“I came to get you,” Iris said. “We were worried.”

“Bull.” Veronica laughed, low and bitter. “You wouldn’t be worried about me.”

“Well, I’m here, aren’t I?”

Veronica kept laughing, half sobbing, the sound of someone coming apart at the seams. She grabbed the edge of the window on the booth and pulled herself up, gripping the lattice, staring at ground, looking like a caged animal or a prisoner who’d committed some most heinous crime. “Yeah, but of course you’d come for me. Because you’re so stupidly perfect.”

“I thought you hated me.”

“Yeah, I hate you because you’re perfect. I look in your eyes, and underneath all the kindness and truth and good nature is exactly the same person. A bit more unsure, a bit more scared, but still good. And I’m not that. I’m a bad person, no matter what I pretend to be.”

Iris didn’t know what to say. So she asked, “Veronica, why are you here?”

“You wouldn’t get it. You’re a good person, through and through. I mean, you’d understand the curiosity, at least, seeing that light in the woods, but you wouldn’t know the f-feeling of walking through a g-graveyard and thinking, I’m alive and they’re dead and that’s not fair.” Veronica looked up and met Iris’ eyes, a cold light in them she’s never seen before as her voice struggled not to break. “I ended up in the graveyard, and I kept thinking the dead was rise from the ground and pull me down to Hell. So I ran in here, and I felt worse, because this place is so... holy, and I shouldn’t be here, so I ran and I found this box and I tried to pray. And I couldn’t. I tried and tried and I just kept breaking down. And then you found me.” Veronica swung out her arms in a gesture of “here I am,” quiet and ashamed. “Like this. Scared and broken and damned.”

Iris opened the confessional’s door. “Veronica. You said you think I’m a good person. You said Jace is a good person. Why?”

“Because you always do what’s best to help people. It’s in your nature.”

“And how is that any different from you? Veronica, you may be a chaotic disaster of a person, but you have principles and you don’t hurt people.” That was true. Iris knew it, even if her everyday interactions with her pushed those facts out of conscious thought.

“But that’s fake. That’s me trying, but deep down, I’m not a good person. It’s just an act.”

“If it was just an act, would you be crying in a church where no one else can hear you?”

Veronica had no answer. And with her brain whispering that this was a bad idea, Iris hugged her. “You’re not a bad person, V. No matter how much you get on my nerves.” Veronica chuckled. “Come on, let’s get back to the others.”

Titus had repaired the car when they returned, and Nina was so relieved to see both of them okay that she actually ran up to them before regaining her general apathetic attitude. Since Sora and Jace were already half asleep, Iris went back to the driver’s seat. As Titus started playing some musical, happily explaining to Veronica that the front seat meant he got to pick, Iris adjusted her mirror and smiled at the sight of Sora and Jace asleep on each other’s shoulder in the reflection. Titus was respectful enough to not sing at the top of his lungs, instead humming as he tapped the rhythms on the dashboard, and Nina was sharing a game with Veronica, who threw herself into it with such enthusiasm she managed to draw Nina into her energy, pulling a few chuckles out of her.

Iris smiled at her group, making plans in her head for tomorrow, as if any plan could stand up to those five. She gently turned up the music and they drove onto a bridge, the starlit sky reflected in the gently flowing waters.


End file.
